Related Applications
There are no applications related hereto heretofore filed in this or any foreign country.
Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to article handling and more particularly to a load bridging vehicle for transport of grave-site supports, tools and accessory materials.
IIC. Background and Description of Prior Art
The disposal of human remains and the processes and practices associated therewith have a sophisticated historicity, probably about as long as human life itself. Through that historical period the associated practices and procedures have changed quite materially. Ground burial in individual rigid containers such as caskets, vaults or the like has been and remains a popular method for such disposal. In the more recent history of ground burial, it has become common to encase a rigid coffin within a burial vault formed of some rigid durable material such as concrete, plastic or the like as this practice benefits cemeteries in preventing grave subsidence and also benefits the aesthetic tastes and psychological needs of a decedent""s survivors.
Both caskets and burial vaults are relatively large heavy structures that are difficult to manually move and manipulate. Responsively various mechanical devices have heretofore been developed to aid in accomplishing these functions. As such devices were developed and came into use, they tended to offend the aesthetic and psychological sensitivity of a decedent""s survivors when the devices were present at grave-site funerary services, probably because they demonstrate rather graphically the nature of death and the disposal of human remains, which in general tend to upset the human psyche.
Responsively the more massive unconcealed transportation and lowering devices for vaults and caskets fell out of popularity at grave-site services and smaller more concealable grave-site supports have become popular in the present day. The smaller grave-site supports in general provide a relatively flat base configured to extend smaller about the periphery of a pre-formed grave excavation and support an upstanding pedestal type base for the ultimate support of a casket. The support may be covered partially or completely with drapery, grass mats or the like for at least partial concealment to lessen the impact of its significance while yet allowing the device to be used to lower a casket into the grave excavation therebeneath, which generally already contains at least part of a pre-placed burial vault, after grave-site funerary service participants have left the grave-site. Such grave-site supports of the present day marketplace are still relatively large, bulky and relatively heavy devices that present problems for transport, establishment and removal. The instant invention provides a trailer for transport, placement and removal of such supports which additionally provides facilities for transport and storage of tools and accessory materials required for use with the supports or at the grave site.
Though smaller concealable grave-site supports have been known and used for some time, they generally have been transported, positioned and removed partially manually and partially by use of general vehicular material handling machinery that is not specifically designed for nor adapted to use with grave-site supports. Such activity generally has required the services of at least two workers in addition to the machinery involved. The expenditure of substantial time and effort in dealing with concealable grave-site supports tends to make grave-site burial services difficult and not particularly economically viable for the service providers, though such services still are often desired by a decedent""s survivors. The instant invention seeks to provide a trailer type vehicle to aid in resolving this problem.
The instant trailer provides a U-shaped base frame having the back of the xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d forwardly positioned to attach a tongue while leaving an open rearward portion so that a grave-site support may be carried within the void defined by the frame and yet the trailer may be moved in an elongate direction over a ground supported grave-site support for either placement or removal. This type of U-shaped base frame is distinguished from prior devices for transport and placement of burial vaults and caskets which have provided a completely closed peripheral frame defining a medial void wherein a casket or vault is supported and through which they may be vertically moved. With such prior devices, the casket or vault remains on or in the device and is lowered vertically therefrom for placement in a grave-site so that the mechanism does not need to be moved horizontally over or away from any ground supported structure such as grave-site support that remains on the surface of the earth after placement. The instant type of peripherally defined U-shaped base frame allows the creation of a smaller, more compact trailer that yet provides greater utility at an established grave-site during grave-site support placement and removal than has been provided by prior methods and devices. The instant trailer also allows the supporting wheels of the trailer to be maintained laterally outwardly of the grave excavation so as not to put any substantial supportative force directly on the peripheral edges or side walls defining the grave excavation to cause collapse of that area into the grave excavation.
The base frame supports an upstanding peripheral frame carrying a relatively large five sided box-like storage bin for transport and storage of tools and ancillary materials required at a grave-site for establishment, use and removal of a grave-site support. The medial portion of the storage box supports a winch carrying a tension element depending downwardly through the storage box and therebelow to carry plural cables for attachment to a grave-site support to interconnect the support, maintain it within the void defined by the peripheral frame and move it vertically for placement on or removal from a grave-site.
My invention resides not in any one of these features individually, but rather in the synergistic combination of all of its structures that give rise to the functions necessarily flowing therefrom as herein specified and claimed.
The instant trailer for grave-site supports provides a U-shaped base frame having the back of the xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d forwardly positioned to attach a hitch for interconnection with a propelling vehicle and rearwardly extending legs to define a partially enclosed medial void within which a grave-site support may be carried. Each leg of the frame carries a laterally extending wheel truck journaling a supportative wheel. The opposed legs of the base frame support two elongately spaced sets of laterally spaced opposed upstanding posts, each pair of which are connected in their upper end portions by laterally extending beams which support an elongate storage bin. The storage bin supports a laterally extending beam to interconnect the tension elements for vertical motion and carry an electrically powered winch having a tension element depending through and below the storage bin to interconnect plural tension elements that connect the grave-site support for vertical positioning and motion. The forward portion of the base frame carries a forwardly extending hitch to interconnect with a propelling vehicle and support within the medial void defined by the base frame.
In providing such an apparatus, it is:
A principal object to create a trailer particularly adapted for transport, positioning and removal of smaller concealable grave-site support devices of the modern funerary arts.
A further object is to provide such a trailer that has a wheel supported U-shaped base frame carrying an upstanding peripheral frame supporting an elongate storage bin spacedly above the base frame.
A further object is to provide such a trailer that has a powered winch, supported on a beam carried by the storage bin, with a tension element depending through and below the storage bin to releaseably interconnect and support a grave-site support between the rearwardly extending legs of the trailer base frame for vertical positioning responsive to hoist operation.
A further object is to provide such a trailer that has plural adjustable supports to maintain the carried grave-site support between the lateral legs of the base frame and spacedly distant therefrom.
A still further object is to provide such a trailer that has a storage bin to carry hand tools and ancillary materials required to establish a grave-site support for use at a grave-site.
A still further object is to provide such a trailer that is of new and novel design, of rugged and durable nature, of simple and economic manufacture and one that is otherwise well suited to the uses and purposes for which it is intended.
Other and further objects of my invention will appear from the following specification and accompanying drawings which form a part hereof. In carrying out the objects of my invention however, it is to be understood that its features are susceptible of change in design and structural arrangements with only one preferred and practical embodiment being illustrated in the accompanying drawings and specified as is required.